Business, tourism backers tickled at direct Chicago flight

Great Falls tourism partnership officials show off some Chicago-style hot dogs Monday to celebrate the United Airlines nonstop flights between Great Falls and Chicago that will start June 11. Shown with hot dogs from Sonic drive-in are Airport Director John Faulkner, left, Great Falls Tourism Director Rebecca Engum, center, and Great Falls Area Chamber of Commerce Director Brad Livingston.(Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/PETER JOHNSON)Buy Photo

Great Falls tourism partners provided details Monday about direct Great Falls to Chicago United Airlines flights starting this summer that they said will lower fares for area business people and vacationers flying east and draw more vacation visitors from the Midwest.

Airport Director John Faulkner said he is pleased that United will operate a summer route between Great Falls and Chicago O’Hare Airport on Saturday and Sunday mornings from June 11 to Aug. 14, using a 70-seat jet with a first-class section.

“United is the largest carrier serving the Chicago market, and connects to more than 200 destinations in the United States and abroad,” he said.

The four-hour, nonstop flight will get Great Falls business and leisure travelers farther east at low prices that could spur United and Delta to lower their fares for other eastbound flights, he said.

Great Falls Tourism Alliance Director Rebecca Engum said the Great Falls airport and tourism groups have partnered the last three years on a multimedia marketing campaign to Midwestern markets that increased travel from Chicago to Great Falls by 38 percent, using the GenuineMontana.com brand that focuses on recreational opportunities in the Great Falls area, including Glacier National Park.

This year the airport and tourism alliance will spend an extra $60,000 on marketing Great Falls to Chicago residents, she said, and hope to boost the number of incoming visitors and increase the impact of the tourism industry, which already is responsible for about 8 percent of the Great Falls economy.

Great Falls Area Chamber of Commerce Director Brad Livingston noted that the four-year campaign to draw more commercial flights to Great Falls, called the Low Cost Airline Initiative, is financed by area businesses and individuals.

“It took all three groups, the airport, the tourism alliance and chamber businesses, to make this happen,” he said, adding that the new flight will lower fares for both business and leisure travelers.

The Great Falls Airport Authority successfully applied for a $385,000 federal Small Community Air Service Development grant to help attract a nonstop flight between Great Falls and Chicago. Money raised by the Low Cost Airline Initiative will provide matching money for the two-year federal grant, if needed.

If the two-day-a-week flights are filled this summer, Faulkner said he hopes to persuade United Airlines to increase the service to five days a week next summer.

He said United Airlines officials said they often start direct summer service to a new city with the Saturday and Sunday service, which is great for leisure travelers, and then expand the service to more days if it’s successful.

Faulkner gave an example of how the revenue guarantee grant might work. If United Airlines loses $90,000 on the flight this summer, the federal grant would provide $60,000 and the local fund would pay $30,000 to the airline to make up for its loss, he said.

But Faulkner said the airport never needed to dip into the local investment pool when Frontier provided summer flights between Great Falls and Denver a few years ago. The airline made money on the flights, but dropped the service after changing its business model to concentrate more on eastern flights, he said.

During its four years, the Low Cost Airline Initiative partnership has helped lower the average Great Falls ticket price by 15 percent, to 1993 levels, while national average ticket prices have increased 16 percent, Faulkner said.

The Great Falls Airport had the lowest average ticket prices among Montana’s five commercial airports during the last two years for which data was available.

Faulkner, Engum and Livingston posed for pictures with Chicago-style hot dogs, although they were purchased at the Great Falls Sonic Drive-In.

Details of new flight

Here are particulars of the Great Falls to Chicago flight:

• The service begins June 11 and tentatively ends Aug. 14.

• Both Saturday and Sunday flights depart Great Falls at 12:30 p.m. and arrive in Chicago at 4:30 p.m. From Chicago, the flights depart at 9 a.m. and arrive at 11:40 a.m. That’s an early arrival that Great Falls Airport Director John Faulkner said will give Midwesterners plenty of time to start their vacation here.

• Cheapest round-trip fares shown on United Airlines’ online site started at $421. Usually those who book earliest get those lowest fares, with the remaining seats going for a tier of other prices, Faulkner said.

• While Great Falls travelers would have to stay at least six days in Chicago or other points beyond to take advantage of the direct-flight round trip, they could connect from Chicago to Denver to Great Falls if they planned a shorter trip, Faulkner said.